1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electronic whiteboard system, an electronic whiteboard access right giving method, and an electronic whiteboard access right giving program. In particular, the present invention relates to an electronic whiteboard system, an electronic whiteboard access right giving method, and an electronic whiteboard access right giving program capable of giving an access right to a specific area on an electronic whiteboard.
2. Background Art
Recently, electronic whiteboards such as electronic blackboards and electronic whiteboard functions of Web conferences have increasingly come into wide use. In an electronic whiteboard, objects such as text, figures, and images can be drawn in a virtual canvas, and they can be shared among a plurality of users. Further, since an area on an electronic whiteboard can be expanded, a number of information pieces can be arranged in one area. However, when the size of the electronic whiteboard becomes larger and a number of information pieces (objects) are arranged in one area, it is very difficult to grasp the overall information (objects) and the structure of the electronic whiteboard. In such a case, information (objects) can be easily summarized by dividing the electronic whiteboard into a plurality of areas. In view of this, a number of methods for dividing an electronic whiteboard into a plurality of areas have been proposed.
Meanwhile, for the case where information is shared with another person(s) by using an electronic whiteboard that is divided into a plurality of areas, there is a demand that the electronic whiteboard should be able to carry information thereon in such a manner that personal memos and the like are separated from information that is arranged to be shared with the other person(s), i.e., an area containing therein information that should be concealed from the other person(s) is separated from an area containing therein information that is desired to be shared with the other person(s). To answer this demand, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-281101, for example, proposes a technique related to “Electronic Conference System”.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-281101 proposes the following mechanism. An electronic whiteboard is divided into a plurality of windows including an individual screen display window for each individual and a shred screen display window shared by every individual. For example, when a given individual attempts to edit a document written in the shared screen display window, the same part of the document to be edited is displayed in both the individual screen display window for that individual and the shred screen display window. Then, letters that are entered for the editing purpose are displayed only on the individual screen display window before that individual enters an input end symbol for the editing, and then when the input end symbol is entered, the editing result is finally displayed on the shared screen display window.
Further, even when information is shared with other persons by using a shared area on an electronic whiteboard, it is also important to set (or define) access rights in such a manner that individuals who can access the shared information (e.g., members) are separated from individuals who cannot access the shared information (e.g., guests). For such a mechanism for setting access rights, Japanese Patent No. 5369800, for example, proposes a technique related to “Information Processing System, Information Processing Method, and Information Processing Apparatus”.
Japanese Patent No. 5369800 proposes the following mechanism. As access rights for a virtual working space where a plurality of users can simultaneously work, users are divided into members and guests. While a member can unconditionally access the virtual working space, a guest can reflect (i.e., present or change) an object created by himself/herself in an area for the guest only when an administrator selects an acceptance button. When the administrator selects a delete button, the object created by the guest is deleted from the working area where the object is temporarily stored.